


The Tower

by SunlitStone



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Costis does his best, Eugenides deals with trauma by hiding in a tower, Gen, Loyalty, Post-The King of Attolia, Quiet Loyalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlitStone/pseuds/SunlitStone
Summary: The gap was five feet across and two feet up. It was not anything Costis would have dreamed of jumping before Eugenides had arrived in Attolia, but as it was, he did not feel he had much choice.
Relationships: Attolia | Irene/Eugenides, Eugenides & Costis Ormentiedes
Comments: 18
Kudos: 110
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	The Tower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [millepertuis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/millepertuis/gifts).



The gap was five feet across and two feet up. It was not anything Costis would have dreamed of jumping before Eugenides had arrived in Attolia, but as it was, he did not feel he had much choice. He walked as far back as he could, then ran, leaping just before the roof ran out.

He managed to get one hand and one forearm in through the bottom of the open window. After a moment to recover his breath, this was enough to scramble the rest of him through as well, rising quickly from a heap into a proper standing Guard position.

The king was standing in front of the tower's other window, across from the one Costis had entered, and he was gaping at Costis. As Costis straightened he closed his mouth and came over, his face still painted into an expression of, Costis suspected exaggerated, disbelief.

"Costis," said the king. "You are an absolute lunatic. And believe me, I know what I'm talking about." He walked around Costis and peered down at the roof, as though to confirm for himself something he already knew, then turned back to Costis. "That's not an easy jump."

"No, Your Majesty," Costis agreed, but the king was ignoring him.

" _I_ could have made that jump. There are few enough in the palace who could—gods above, Costis, what were you thinking?"

When the king mentioned gods, Costis's fingers turned unthinking to cover the ring he now wore, with the round-feather shape marked on its stone. The king marked the motion with his eyes, then stepped back, covering his face with his hand.

"You imbecile," he said. "You complete—" then he dropped his hand and walked uncomfortably close to Costis, staring him directly in the eye. "The god is quite capable of dropping you if he wants to, I can promise you that much, Costis. Don't think he'll protect you if you take blatantly idiotic risks." The words were not unusual for Eugenides, but there was an undertone of strain to him that Costis, attuned to his king's moods, could detect. He realized with chagrin that he had actually upset the king, and searched quickly for some way of diverting his mood.

"I figured he'd want you out of the tower," he said.

It worked. The king stepped back and glared at Costis, eyes narrowing in displeasure. "What, is threatening to break down my door not enough?" Costis had resorted to that earlier in the day, when the king had stopped answering through the door for several hours. "Can I not get a moment's peace?"

"You've been in here three days, Your Majesty," said Costis. For a moment the king's displeasure became true anger, and his frown transmuted to a snarl. Then he sagged back, taking a deep breath and turning away from Costis.

When he spoke he sounded tired. "Why are you here, Costis? It isn't just to twit me."

He was worrying the court—for that matter, he was worrying Costis, who admittedly worried about his king so habitually that it had become almost like breathing to him. But neither of these two reasons would have driven Costis to risk himself coming through the window, in search of a privacy shouting through the thick oaken door could not provide, and Eugenides knew it.

Costis said, "You are worrying the queen."

The king closed his eyes for a long moment. Then he opened them to look at Costis. "And how do you know that?" he said. His tone was dangerously light. "Has she taken to sharing her worries with every halfwit in the court in my absence?"

"No, Your Majesty," said Costis stolidly, and continued on before the king could interrupt him. "But she has taken to working in a new set of rooms. I went to see them after she left last night." He paused; the king was watching him carefully. "My King—one set of windows faces the tower. Another looks out towards the mountains."

The king closed his eyes again, and slumped against the wall next to the window Costis had come through: a window which faced the mountains, and therefore Eddis. "I think you used to be easier to manage," he said, without opening his eyes. "In fact, I know you did."

"If I did," Costis said, "it's your fault I've changed."

The king snorted. "I don't suppose I can argue with that. Well. In fact I could if I chose to; I could do anything if I chose to, Costis, because I am king."

"Yes, Your Majesty," said Costis.

"But I don't choose to argue with it, because it's true. And I don't choose to open the door and go down out of the tower, however much it worries my queen, because if I saw her..." He opened his eyes now and looked at Costis seriously. His hand, unconsciously thought Costis, came up and rubbed against his left ear.

"Oh," said Costis. Eugenides still woke from nightmares about his wife, he knew. The king would worry the court a thousand times by retreating from it entirely, before he would once upset his wife by avoiding only her.

"Quite." There was a bitter twist to the king's mouth as looked at the wall over Costis's shoulder.

Costis considered the problem. If the king could not solve it, he did not think that he had much hope. Perhaps he should seek out one of the queen's attendants...? Then he considered again. "Is there anything I could do to help?"

The king cast him a surprised look, then a considering one. "Maybe. Yes. Hmm." He crossed over to the other window, swiveled a chair that had been standing next to it, and gestured Costis closer. When Costis came, the king frowned at Costis thoughtfully before sitting back, nodding once. "Tell me again about your farm," he said. "Tell me...what the land was like, the shape of it."

Costis gave him an uncertain look, not sure whether he was being mocked. The first time the king had asked Costis about his farm, Costis had just punched the king and knocked him over. But there was, if a faint ironic awareness, no cruelty in the king's gaze; he was as serious as, in the ordinary way of things, he ever got.

Costis obeyed, and did his best to describe the lay of the farm: the height of the olives, the position of the corn on the slopes, the place the river came pouring through. He was not used to talking for so long, but the king kept him going with careful questions—what were the shadows like in the corn, when the sun was setting? What sounds did they hear from his house at night, and how was it different in the city?—and gave him water to drink from the king's own cup when he became hoarse. Before too long a couple of hours had passed. The king's gaze was on Costis but his attention seemed elsewhere, constructing in careful detail a place he had never seen. This tower, Costis thought, was as close as the King of Attolia who had once been the Thief of Eddis could come to escaping his court. If Costis's words gave him another kind of escape, he could only be glad.

But eventually the sun was dipping below the horizon, and when Costis came to a natural pause, instead of asking him another question the king waved him to a stop. "It's getting late, it seems. You should be getting to bed."

Costis cast a glance around the room—there wasn't any cot, no furniture at all beside the chair the king was sitting on, a couple of cushions, and a small table off to one side of the room. The king caught his glance, and rolled his eyes. "I meant in your quarters. You're not my only guard, Costis. I know for a fact you've got someone posted on the door, and on the roof outside." He nodded to the roof where Costis had jumped from.

This was true, but Costis knew his king. "But you're not sleeping in here, Your Majesty."

The king cast Costis a sharp glance, but Costis met it head-on. The king would not have spent two nights sleeping on a stone floor without even a blanket, not when he could have had a cot brought up, a whole bed brought up, just for the asking, or at least made off with some blankets to sleep on. The king sighed. "My word that I'm sleeping somewhere safe. And that will have to settle you."

"Somewhere guarded?" Costis tried; he had known the king long enough to be sure that what the king meant when he said 'somewhere safe' was not what he himself would have meant by those same words

But the king merely shook his head, refusing to answer. "Somewhere safe, Costis. That will have to be enough."

All things considered, Costis thought, it was probably best for the king that Costis not push him too much. Yet he was still unhappy. Perhaps the king sensed this, for he softened enough to tell Costis, "I won't be more than another few days, I promise. I am still King."

There was not much Costis could say to this, so he nodded, and nodded again when the king added, "And tell my wife she doesn't need to watch the mountains. You can tell her about this whole conversation, in fact. It will make her feel better. But don't mention—" he gestured.

"Yes, Your Majesty," said Costis, understanding. He hesitated. "Should I come back tomorrow?"

"Yes, why not. I'll even let you in the door this time." His lip curled up in amusement. "Bring your Mede work, why don't you. I know you've been having some trouble."

Costis heaved a sigh. But the truth was, if it would help the king, he would learn a hundred languages, in strange alphabets besides. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"And Costis—" the king hesitated, then reached out with his hand and clasped Costis on the arm. "Thank you."

Costis felt himself flush deeply, and he bowed low quickly, trying to keep Eugenides from seeing. "Of course," he said, doing his best to keep his voice steady. "My King."

The warmth of the king's grasp, and the king's gratitude, came with him all the way back to his quarters, and carried him off into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> In The Thief, Eugenides (the god) is described as having a scar like a rounded feather on his cheek; towards the end, Eugenides (the man) gets one as well, from an injury acquired escaping from Attolia. Thus Costis wears the mark of his god, but also his King, both of whom he agrees to serve in King of Attolia. This is also the conversation referred to by Eugenides when he says that the god is quite capable of dropping Costis if he wants to; when Costis agreed to serve him and his god, Eugenides told him that he would never die of a fall unless the god himself dropped him.
> 
> millepertuis, I really loved your letter. The loyalty and devotion (and love!) is one of my favourite parts of the series, too, so I had a good time writing this. I hope you have a happy Yuletide!
> 
> If everyone could avoid mentioning details from Thick as Thieves in the comments, I'd really appreciate it, thank you! :)


End file.
